Non-PDCCH Signaling of SIB Resource Assignment

ABSTRACT

This disclosure relates to providing system information for cell access to link budget limited devices. According to some embodiments, a base station may transmit an announcement information block (AIB) in a downlink shared data channel (e.g., PDSCH), wherein the AIB contains information useable by a UE in determining the location of system information in the downlink shared data channel. The UE can thus determine the location of and decode system information without having to decode a downlink control channel (e.g., PDCCH). This may be important for certain classes of devices, such as link budget limited devices, which have issues in decoding the downlink control channel. Improved paging scheduling techniques are also disclosed which more efficiently use PDCCH paging resources.

PRIORITY INFORMATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/175,102, entitled “Non-PDCCH Signaling of SIB Resource Assignment,”filed Jun. 7, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,091,775, which claims priorityto U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/206,797, entitled“Non-PDCCH Signaling of SIB Resource Assignment,” filed Aug. 18, 2015,which are both hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety asthough fully and completely set forth herein.

The claims in the instant application are different than those of theparent application or other related applications. The Applicanttherefore rescinds any disclaimer of claim scope made in the parentapplication or any predecessor application in relation to the instantapplication. The Examiner is therefore advised that any such previousdisclaimer and the cited references that it was made to avoid, may needto be revisited. Further, any disclaimer made in the instant applicationshould not be read into or against the parent application or otherrelated applications.

FIELD

The present application relates to wireless devices, and moreparticularly to a system and method for providing system information forlink budget limited wireless devices, as well as to improved pagingscheduling for such devices.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Wireless communication systems are rapidly growing in usage.Additionally, there exist numerous different wireless communicationtechnologies and standards. Some examples of wireless communicationtechnologies include GSM, UMTS (associated with, for example, WCDMA orTD-SCDMA air interfaces), LTE, LTE Advanced (LTE-A), HSPA, 3GPP2CDMA2000 (e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), IEEE 802.11 (WLAN orWi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), Bluetooth, and others.

Wireless communication can be useful for a wide breadth of deviceclasses, ranging from relatively simple (e.g., potentially inexpensive)devices which may have limited capabilities, to relatively complex(e.g., potentially more expensive) devices which may have greatercapabilities. Such devices may have different characteristics withrespect to processing, memory, battery, antenna (power/range,directionality), and/or other capabilities. Devices which exhibitrelatively limited reception and/or transmission capabilities (due todevice design, current transmission medium conditions, and/or otherfactors) may be referred to in some instances as “link budget limited”devices.

SUMMARY

Embodiments are presented herein of methods for providing cell systeminformation for link budget limited devices, and of devices (e.g., basestations, wireless devices) configured to implement the methods.

According to the techniques described herein, a base station maytransmit an announcement information block (AIB) in a downlink shareddata channel (e.g., PDSCH), wherein the AIB contains information useableby a wireless device in determining the location of system informationin the downlink shared data channel. For example, the AIB may containresource assignment information for system information block 1 (SIB-1).The wireless device can thus determine the location of and decode systeminformation without having to decode a downlink control channel (e.g.,PDCCH). This may be important for certain classes of devices, such aslink budget limited devices, that have issues in decoding the downlinkcontrol channel.

The techniques described herein may be implemented in and/or used with anumber of different types of devices, including but not limited tocellular base stations and/or other cellular network infrastructureequipment, cellular phones, tablet computers, wearable computingdevices, portable media players, and any of various other computingdevices.

This Summary is intended to provide a brief overview of some of thesubject matter described in this document. Accordingly, it will beappreciated that the above-described features are merely examples andshould not be construed to narrow the scope or spirit of the subjectmatter described herein in any way. Other features, aspects, andadvantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparentfrom the following Detailed Description, Figures, and Claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present subject matter can be obtainedwhen the following detailed description of the embodiments is consideredin conjunction with the following drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a base station (BS) in communication with a userequipment (UE) device, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a UE device, accordingto some embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a BS, according to someembodiments;

FIGS. 5-6 are a communication flow diagrams illustrating exemplarymethods for providing system information to link budget limited devices,according to some embodiments; and

FIG. 7 is a flowchart diagram illustrating an exemplary method forimproving the efficiency of paging scheduling of link budget limiteddevices, according to some embodiments.

While the features described herein may be susceptible to variousmodifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof areshown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described indetail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detaileddescription thereto are not intended to be limiting to the particularform disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover allmodifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spiritand scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Acronyms

The following acronyms are used in the present disclosure.

3GPP: Third Generation Partnership Project

3GPP2: Third Generation Partnership Project 2

UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

EUTRA: Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access

GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications

LTE: Long Term Evolution

MIB: Master Information Block

NW: Network (cellular network)

PDCCH: Physical Downlink Control Channel

PDSCH: Physical Downlink Shared Channel

RAT: Radio Access Technology

RLF: Radio Link Failure

RRC: Radio Resource Control

RX: Receive

RLC: Radio Link Control

SI: System Information

SIB: System Information Block

SIB-1: System Information Block 1

TTI: Transmit Time Interval

TX: Transmit

UE: User Equipment

Terms

The following is a glossary of terms used in this disclosure:

Memory Medium—Any of various types of non-transitory memory devices orstorage devices. The term “memory medium” is intended to include aninstallation medium, e.g., a CD-ROM, floppy disks, or tape device; acomputer system memory or random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM,SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc.; a non-volatile memory such as a Flash,magnetic media, e.g., a hard drive, or optical storage; registers, orother similar types of memory elements, etc. The memory medium mayinclude other types of non-transitory memory as well or combinationsthereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in a firstcomputer system in which the programs are executed, or may be located ina second different computer system which connects to the first computersystem over a network, such as the Internet. In the latter instance, thesecond computer system may provide program instructions to the firstcomputer for execution. The term “memory medium” may include two or morememory mediums which may reside in different locations, e.g., indifferent computer systems that are connected over a network. The memorymedium may store program instructions (e.g., embodied as computerprograms) that may be executed by one or more processors.

Carrier Medium—a memory medium as described above, as well as a physicaltransmission medium, such as a bus, network, and/or other physicaltransmission medium that conveys signals such as electrical,electromagnetic, or digital signals.

Programmable Hardware Element—includes various hardware devicescomprising multiple programmable function blocks connected via aprogrammable interconnect. Examples include FPGAs (Field ProgrammableGate Arrays), PLDs (Programmable Logic Devices), FPOAs (FieldProgrammable Object Arrays), and CPLDs (Complex PLDs). The programmablefunction blocks may range from fine grained (combinatorial logic or lookup tables) to coarse grained (arithmetic logic units or processorcores). A programmable hardware element may also be referred to as“reconfigurable logic”.

Computer System—any of various types of computing or processing systems,including a personal computer system (PC), mainframe computer system,workstation, network appliance, Internet appliance, personal digitalassistant (PDA), television system, grid computing system, or otherdevice or combinations of devices. In general, the term “computersystem” can be broadly defined to encompass any device (or combinationof devices) having at least one processor that executes instructionsfrom a memory medium.

User Equipment (UE) (or “UE Device”)—any of various types of computersystems devices which are mobile or portable and which performs wirelesscommunications. Examples of UE devices include mobile telephones orsmart phones (e.g., iPhone™, Android™-based phones), portable gamingdevices (e.g., Nintendo DS™, PlayStation Portable™, Gameboy Advance™,iPhone™), laptops, wearable devices (e.g., smart watch, smart glasses),PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices, orother handheld devices, etc. In general, the term “UE” or “UE device”can be broadly defined to encompass any electronic, computing, and/ortelecommunications device (or combination of devices) which is easilytransported by a user and capable of wireless communication.

Base Station—The term “Base Station” has the full breadth of itsordinary meaning, and at least includes a wireless communication stationinstalled at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of awireless telephone system or radio system.

Processing Element—refers to various elements or combinations ofelements. Processing elements include, for example, circuits such as anASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), portions or circuits ofindividual processor cores, entire processor cores, individualprocessors, programmable hardware devices such as a field programmablegate array (FPGA), and/or larger portions of systems that includemultiple processors.

Link Budget Limited—includes the full breadth of its ordinary meaning,and at least includes a characteristic of a wireless device (a UE) whichexhibits limited communication capabilities, or limited power, relativeto a device that is not link budget limited, or relative to devices forwhich a radio access technology (RAT) standard has been developed. A UEthat is link budget limited may experience relatively limited receptionand/or transmission capabilities, which may be due to one or morefactors such as device design, device size, battery size, antenna sizeor design, transmit power, receive power, current transmission mediumconditions, and/or other factors. Such devices may be referred to hereinas “link budget limited” (or “link budget constrained”) devices. Adevice may be inherently link budget limited due to its size, batterypower, and/or transmit/receive power. For example, a smart watch that iscommunicating over LTE or LTE-A with a base station may be inherentlylink budget limited due to its reduced transmit/receive power and/orreduced antenna. Alternatively, a device may not be inherently linkbudget limited, e.g., may have sufficient size, battery power, and/ortransmit/receive power for normal communications over LTE or LTE-A, butmay be temporarily link budget limited due to current communicationconditions, e.g., a smart phone being at the edge of a cell, etc. It isnoted that the term “link budget limited” includes or encompasses powerlimitations, and thus a power limited device may be considered a linkbudget limited device.

Channel—a medium used to convey information from a sender (transmitter)to a receiver. It should be noted that since characteristics of the term“channel” may differ according to different wireless protocols, the term“channel” as used herein may be considered as being used in a mannerthat is consistent with the standard of the type of device withreference to which the term is used. In some standards, channel widthsmay be variable (e.g., depending on device capability, band conditions,etc.). For example, LTE may support scalable channel bandwidths from 1.4MHz to 20 MHz. In contrast, WLAN channels may be 22 MHz wide whileBluetooth channels may be 1 Mhz wide. Other protocols and standards mayinclude different definitions of channels. Furthermore, some standardsmay define and use multiple types of channels, e.g., different channelsfor uplink or downlink and/or different channels for different uses suchas data, control information, etc.

Band—The term “band” has the full breadth of its ordinary meaning, andat least includes a section of spectrum (e.g., radio frequency spectrum)in which channels are used or set aside for the same purpose.

Automatically—refers to an action or operation performed by a computersystem (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or device (e.g.,circuitry, programmable hardware elements, ASICs, etc.), without userinput directly specifying or performing the action or operation. Thusthe term “automatically” is in contrast to an operation being manuallyperformed or specified by the user, where the user provides input todirectly perform the operation. An automatic procedure may be initiatedby input provided by the user, but the subsequent actions that areperformed “automatically” are not specified by the user, i.e., are notperformed “manually”, where the user specifies each action to perform.For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting eachfield and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typinginformation, selecting check boxes, radio selections, etc.) is fillingout the form manually, even though the computer system must update theform in response to the user actions. The form may be automaticallyfilled out by the computer system where the computer system (e.g.,software executing on the computer system) analyzes the fields of theform and fills in the form without any user input specifying the answersto the fields. As indicated above, the user may invoke the automaticfilling of the form, but is not involved in the actual filling of theform (e.g., the user is not manually specifying answers to fields butrather they are being automatically completed). The presentspecification provides various examples of operations beingautomatically performed in response to actions the user has taken.

FIGS. 1 and 2—Communication System

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary (and simplified) wireless communicationsystem, according to some embodiments. It is noted that the system ofFIG. 1 is merely one example of a possible system, and embodiments maybe implemented in any of various systems, as desired.

As shown, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a basestation 102A which communicates over a transmission medium with one ormore user devices 106A, 106B, etc., through 106N. Each of the userdevices may be referred to herein as a “user equipment” (UE). Thus, theuser devices 106 are referred to as UEs or UE devices.

The base station 102A may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or cellsite, and may include hardware that enables wireless communication withthe UEs 106A through 106N. The base station 102A may also be equipped tocommunicate with a network 100 (e.g., a core network of a cellularservice provider, a telecommunication network such as a public switchedtelephone network (PSTN), and/or the Internet, among variouspossibilities). Thus, the base station 102A may facilitate communicationbetween the user devices and/or between the user devices and the network100.

The communication area (or coverage area) of the base station may bereferred to as a “cell.” The base station 102A and the UEs 106 may beconfigured to communicate over the transmission medium using any ofvarious radio access technologies (RATs), also referred to as wirelesscommunication technologies, or telecommunication standards, such as GSM,UMTS (WCDMA, TD-SCDMA), LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000(e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), Wi-Fi, WiMAX etc.

Base station 102A and other similar base stations (such as base stations102B . . . 102N) operating according to the same or a different cellularcommunication standard may thus be provided as a network of cells, whichmay provide continuous or nearly continuous overlapping service to UEs106A-N and similar devices over a geographic area via one or morewireless communication standards.

Thus, while base station 102A may act as a “serving cell” for UEs 106A-Nas illustrated in FIG. 1, each UE device 106 may also be capable ofreceiving signals from (and possibly within communication range of) oneor more other cells (which might be provided by base stations 102B-Nand/or any other base stations), which may be referred to as“neighboring cells”. Such cells may also be capable of facilitatingcommunication between user devices and/or between user devices and thenetwork 100, according to the same wireless communication technology asbase station 102A and/or any of various other possible wirelesscommunication technologies. Such cells may include “macro” cells,“micro” cells, “pico” cells, and/or cells which provide any of variousother granularities of service area size. For example, base stations102A-B illustrated in FIG. 1 might be macro cells, while base station102N might be a micro cell. Other configurations are also possible.

Note that a UE 106 may be capable of communicating using multiplewireless communication standards. For example, a UE 106 may beconfigured to communicate using a wireless networking (e.g., Wi-Fi)and/or peer-to-peer wireless communication protocol (e.g., BT, Wi-Fipeer-to-peer, etc.) in addition to at least one cellular communicationprotocol (e.g., GSM, UMTS (WCDMA, TD-SCDMA), LTE, LTE-A, HSPA, 3GPP2CDMA2000 (e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), etc.). The UE 106 may alsoor alternatively be configured to communicate using one or more globalnavigational satellite systems (GNSS, e.g., GPS or GLONASS), one or moremobile television broadcasting standards (e.g., ATSC-M/H or DVB-H),and/or any other wireless communication protocol, if desired. Othercombinations of wireless communication standards (including more thantwo wireless communication standards) are also possible.

FIG. 2 illustrates user equipment 106 (e.g., one of the devices 106Athrough 106N) in communication with a base station 102 (e.g., one of thebase stations 102A through 102N), according to some embodiments. The UE106 may be a device with cellular communication capability such as amobile phone, a hand-held device, a wearable device, a computer or atablet, or virtually any type of wireless device.

The UE 106 may include a processor that is configured to execute programinstructions stored in memory. The UE 106 may perform any of the methodembodiments described herein by executing such stored instructions.Alternatively, or in addition, the UE 106 may include a programmablehardware element such as an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) that isconfigured to perform any of the method embodiments described herein, orany portion of any of the method embodiments described herein.

The UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using oneor more wireless communication protocols or technologies. In someembodiments, the UE 106 might be configured to communicate using eitherof CDMA2000 (1×RTT/1×EV-DO/HRPD/eHRPD) or LTE using a single sharedradio and/or GSM or LTE using the single shared radio. The shared radiomay couple to a single antenna, or may couple to multiple antennas(e.g., for MIMO) for performing wireless communications. In general, aradio may include any combination of a baseband processor, analog RFsignal processing circuitry (e.g., including filters, mixers,oscillators, amplifiers, etc.), or digital processing circuitry (e.g.,for digital modulation as well as other digital processing). Similarly,the radio may implement one or more receive and transmit chains usingthe aforementioned hardware. For example, the UE 106 may share one ormore parts of a receive and/or transmit chain between multiple wirelesscommunication technologies, such as those discussed above.

In some embodiments, the UE 106 may include separate (and possiblymultiple) transmit and/or receive chains (e.g., including separate RFand/or digital radio components) for each wireless communicationprotocol with which it is configured to communicate. As a furtherpossibility, the UE 106 may include one or more radios which are sharedbetween multiple wireless communication protocols, and one or moreradios which are used exclusively by a single wireless communicationprotocol. For example, the UE 106 might include a shared radio forcommunicating using either of LTE or 1×RTT (or LTE or GSM), and separateradios for communicating using each of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Otherconfigurations are also possible.

FIG. 3—Exemplary Block Diagram of a UE Device

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a UE device 106,according to some embodiments. As shown, the UE device 106 may include asystem on chip (SOC) 300, which may include portions for variouspurposes. For example, as shown, the SOC 300 may include processor(s)302 which may execute program instructions for the UE device 106 anddisplay circuitry 304 which may perform graphics processing and providedisplay signals to the display 360. The processor(s) 302 may also becoupled to memory management unit (MMU) 340, which may be configured toreceive addresses from the processor(s) 302 and translate thoseaddresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 306, read only memory(ROM) 350, Flash memory 310) and/or to other circuits or devices, suchas the display circuitry 304, wireless communication circuitry 330,connector I/F 320, and/or display 360. The MMU 340 may be configured toperform memory protection and page table translation or set up. In someembodiments, the MMU 340 may be included as a portion of theprocessor(s) 302.

As shown, the SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of the UEdevice 106. For example, the UE device 106 may include various types ofmemory (e.g., including NAND 310), a connector interface 320 (e.g., forcoupling to a computer system, dock, charging station, etc.), thedisplay 360, and wireless communication circuitry 330 (e.g., for LTE,Wi-Fi, GPS, etc.).

The UE device 106 may include at least one antenna (and possiblymultiple antennas, e.g., for MIMO and/or for implementing differentwireless communication technologies, among various possibilities), forperforming wireless communication with base stations and/or otherdevices. For example, the UE device 106 may use antenna(s) 335 toperform the wireless communication. As noted above, the UE device 106may be configured to communicate wirelessly using multiple wirelesscommunication technologies in some embodiments.

As described further subsequently herein, the UE device 106 may includehardware and software components for implementing or supportingimplementation of features described herein, such as those describedherein with reference to, inter alia, FIG. 5. The processor 302 of theUE device 106 may be configured to implement part or all of the methodsdescribed herein, e.g., by executing program instructions stored on amemory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium).In other embodiments, processor 302 may be configured as a programmablehardware element, such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or asan ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit). Alternatively (or inaddition) the processor 302 of the UE device 106, in conjunction withone or more of the other components 300, 304, 306, 310, 320, 330, 335,340, 350, 360 may be configured to implement part or all of the featuresdescribed herein.

FIG. 4—Exemplary Block Diagram of a Base Station

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a base station 102,according to some embodiments. It is noted that the base station of FIG.4 is merely one example of a possible base station. As shown, the basestation 102 may include processor(s) 404 which may execute programinstructions for the base station 102. The processor(s) 404 may also becoupled to memory management unit (MMU) 440, which may be configured toreceive addresses from the processor(s) 404 and translate thoseaddresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read only memory(ROM) 450) or to other circuits or devices.

The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. Thenetwork port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network andprovide a plurality of devices, such as UE devices 106, access to thetelephone network as described above in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The network port 470 (or an additional network port) may also oralternatively be configured to couple to a cellular network, e.g., acore network of a cellular service provider. The core network mayprovide mobility related services and/or other services to a pluralityof devices, such as UE devices 106. In some cases, the network port 470may couple to a telephone network via the core network, and/or the corenetwork may provide a telephone network (e.g., among other UE devicesserviced by the cellular service provider).

The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434, and possiblymultiple antennas. The antenna(s) 434 may be configured to operate as awireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate withUE devices 106 via radio 430. The antenna 434 communicates with theradio 430 via communication chain 432. Communication chain 432 may be areceive chain, a transmit chain or both. The radio 430 may be configuredto communicate via various wireless communication technologies,including, but not limited to, LTE, LTE-A, UMTS, CDMA2000, Wi-Fi, etc.

The BS 102 may be configured to communicate wirelessly using multiplewireless communication technologies. In some instances, the base station102 may include multiple radios, which may enable the base station 102to communicate according to multiple wireless communicationtechnologies. For example, as one possibility, the base station 102 mayinclude an LTE radio for performing communication according to LTE aswell as a Wi-Fi radio for performing communication according to Wi-Fi.In such a case, the base station 102 may be capable of operating as bothan LTE base station and a Wi-Fi access point. As another possibility,the base station 102 may include a multi-mode radio which is capable ofperforming communications according to any of multiple wirelesscommunication technologies (e.g., LTE and Wi-Fi).

The BS 102 may include hardware and software components for implementingor supporting implementation of features described herein, such as thosedescribed with respect to, inter alia, FIG. 5. The processor 404 of thebase station 102 may be configured to implement part or all of themethods described herein, e.g., by executing program instructions storedon a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memorymedium). Alternatively, the processor 404 may be configured as aprogrammable hardware element, such as an FPGA (Field Programmable GateArray), or as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or acombination thereof. Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 404of the BS 102, in conjunction with one or more of the other components430, 432, 434, 440, 450, 460, 470 may be configured to implement orsupport implementation of part or all of the features described herein.

System Information Signaling

In some telecommunications standards, such as LTE, the first step for awireless device wishing to access a cell after cell search/cellacquisition may be decoding of the master information block (MIB) andthe system information block(s) (SIBs) of the cell to which access isdesired.

The MIB may typically be transmitted on the physical broadcast channel(PBCH), and may include information such as system bandwidth, systemframe number (SFN), physical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH)configuration, and the number of transmit antennas used by the system.

The SIBs may typically be mapped onto radio resource control (RRC)system information messages transmitted on the physical downlink sharedchannel (PDSCH). SIBs may include a variety of information which mayrange from information necessary to access a cell to information forvarious cell re-selection procedures, among various other types ofinformation. Therefore, in order to establish a connection to a cell orcamp on a cell, the UE may be required to decode system information (SI)broadcast as system information blocks (SIB's).

Thus, at least a portion of the information in the MIB and SIBs for acell may be important (or possibly essential) to a device wishing toaccess that cell. Accordingly, in order to facilitate cell access bydevices (e.g., range constrained devices and/or those in poor RFconditions) which have limited link budgets, particularly as demandgrows for inexpensive and limited capability devices, it may bedesirable to provide mechanisms to improve the abilities of such devicesto decode critical system access information.

In current telecommunication standard implementations, the resourceassignment for SI is indicated in the control channel (e.g., PDCCH inLTE). The SI itself (containing one or more SIB's) is broadcast on theshared channel (e.g., PDSCH in LTE). In current implementations the“SIB-1” (which may include cell access related parameters and schedulinginformation for other SIBs, according to some embodiments) istransmitted as a separate SI at fixed TTI (transmit time interval)locations. Therefore, in current telecommunication implementations eachUE may be required to monitor and decode the PDCCH to determine theresource assignment information of the system information (e.g., thevarious SIBs), which appears in the PDSCH. In other words, currentimplementations may require the UE to perform downlink control channeldecoding (e.g., decoding of the PDCCH) in order for the UE to know theassignment of resources to system information in the downlink shareddata channel (PDSCH). Knowing the resources assignment information ofthe SI, the UE can then proceed to decode the system information.

Link budget limited UE devices in a 3GPP network may have difficulty indecoding the control channel when the UE is located at further distancesfrom the eNB in the cell. Therefore, improvements are desired which mayallow certain UEs, such as link budget limited UEs, to determine the SIwithout having to perform control channel decoding, i.e., without havingto decode the PDCCH.

One possible solution is for the locations of SIBs to be fixed and hencealready known by both the UE's and the network. However, the eNB maydesire to retain the flexibility to vary the resources assigned to SI inorder to take advantage of frequency and time diversity and to counterinter-cell interference. Thus, in at least some embodiments, and fromthe network point of view, it may not be desirable to hinder thisflexibility in SI resource assignment. Therefore, improved methods aredesired.

FIG. 5—Non-PDCCH Signaling of SIB Resource Assignment Using anAnnouncement Information Block

As noted above herein, according to some embodiments it may beadvantageous to provide a way for certain UEs to locate and decodesystem information for accessing a cell without decoding control channelcommunications. FIG. 5 is a communication flow diagram illustrating amethod for a base station 102 to signal resource assignments for systeminformation for accessing a cell using an announcement information block(AIB), such that a wireless device 106 may be able to locate the systeminformation without needing to decode a downlink control channel. Notethat while elements of the method of FIG. 5 are described substantiallywith reference to the LTE wireless communication technology, part or allof the method may be used in conjunction with other wirelesscommunication technologies (e.g., including future revisions to and/orsuccessors of LTE), as desired.

The method shown in FIG. 5 may be used in conjunction with any of thecomputer systems or devices shown in the above Figures, among otherdevices. In various embodiments, some of the elements of the schemeshown may be performed concurrently, in a different order than shown,substituted for by other elements, or may be omitted. Additionalelements may also be performed as desired. As shown, the scheme mayoperate as follows.

In 502, the base station 102 may transmit an announcement informationblock in a downlink shared channel. The AIB may indicate resourceassignments for one or more SIBs, e.g., including at least a resourceassignment for an SIB-1.

In some embodiments, the AIB may be broadcast by a network that serves aclass of link-budget limited UEs, and may announce the support ofcoverage enhancement features for this class of UEs. In other words, theAIB may effectively announce that this eNB “caters” to this class of UEdevices. The AIB may be broadcast on the PDSCH, and thus no decoding ofthe PDCCH may be necessary for decoding of the AIB.

The location of the AIB may be fixed, and may be similar to the locationof a MIB, so that the location may be known a priori by all UE devices.In some embodiments, only a special class of UE devices (UEs designatedas link budget limited) will decode the AIB. The AIB may thus betransmitted at known subframe/TTI locations in a frame and with knownassignment of resources in the PDSCH. As one possibility, the assignmentof resources and location may be a function of physical Cell-ID, e.g.,in order to counter inter-cell interference. At least according to someembodiments, it may be the case that no PDCCH is associated with theAIB. In other words, the assignment of resources and location oftransmission of SIBs may be a function of a cell specific value, such asphysical Cell-ID. In some instances, the resource assignments may varyin a known deterministic pattern in order to achieve frequency and/ortime diversity of these transmissions and combat inter-cell interference

According to some embodiments, the AIB may typically have a smallpayload. In some embodiments the AIB may contain the resourceassignments for some or all of the broadcast system information (SI) inthe cell. If desired, the AIB may be power boosted, allocated enoughresources for redundancy, and/or repeated enough times to help ensurethat the link-budget limited UEs are able to reliably decode the AIB.

According to some embodiments, the system information (SI) maybeconsidered to be composed of two parts, these being the systeminformation block 1 (SIB-1) and the remaining SIBs. The SIB-1 in LTE mayhave a special status and may be broadcast with a known periodicity andon known TTIs. Thus, the subframe where the SIB-1 is located may beknown in advance, but the resource assignment of SIB-1 may not be knownin advance. Accordingly, conventionally the UE has to decode the PDCCHin that particular sub-frame with a system information radio networktemporary identifier (SI-RNTI) to determine the resource assignment ofthe SIB-1, which can then be used to find the SIB-1 in the PDSCH.

In at least some embodiments, the AIB includes the resource assignmentor location of the SIB-1. Thus, when the link-budget limited UE decodesthe AIB, it knows the resource assignments for SIB-1 in the sharedchannel. Thus, according to such embodiments, the UE may be able todetermine the location of and to decode the SIB-1 in the PDSCH withoutdecoding the associated PDCCH sent with a SI-RNTI. In other words, sincethe AIB contains the resource assignment of SIB-1, the UE can obtainthis resource assignment from the AIB, and hence is not required todecode the PDCCH for this information.

In at least some embodiments, the AIB may in addition contain theresource assignment for other SI (e.g., SIBs other than SIB-1). In otherwords, resource assignments for other SIBs may also be indicated in theAIB, in addition to the resource assignment of SIB-1.

In some embodiments, the AIB is broadcast with one or more of: 1) enoughresources, 2) enough repetitions, or 3) sufficient power boosting, sothat the special class of UEs (e.g., link budget limited UEs) may beable to easily and successfully decode the AIBs.

As previously noted, the SIB-1 may contain the periodicities and windows(called SI-windows, and potentially including multiple subframes/TTIs)related to the location of other SIBs. However, the precise TTI(s)containing SI (and the TTIs containing its repetitions) within anSI-window may be uncertain (e.g., to allow flexible scheduling by thebase station within the SI-window, which may in turn allow the basestation to implement frequency diversity, time diversity, and/orinter-cell interference mitigation) and may conventionally be determinedby decoding the PDCCH in an SI-window with a SI-RNTI.

Thus, a complication in the current telecom standard relates to wherethe UE is only provided an SI-window for the location of SI. Once the UEreceives an SI-window, it may be required to search in each of thesubframes for the SI. If the UE finds the SI-RNTI in the PDCCH, then theUE decodes the SIB.

In embodiments described herein, since the UE will not decode the PDCCHassociated with the SIs, the associated uncertainly in the TTI may beresolved by the UE via blind decoding the resources assigned to the SI.Alternatively, if desired, in order to avoid placing blind decodingburden on the UE, the AIB may also contain information to eliminate theTTI uncertainty in the location of SI and its redundancy-version (RV)repetitions in the SI-window.

System information blocks may generally be transmitted more than once,e.g., with one or more redundancy version repetitions. The informationcontained in the AIB may be for the first such transmission, andaccording to some embodiments a formula or pattern may be used so thatthe UE can determine when the subsequent redundancy version repetitionsare sent. For example, this formula may be used by the UE to determinewhen the next redundancy version of the same SIB is being sent. Asdiscussed above, typically the eNB may desire to change the resourceassignments of SI being transmitted to provide for frequency and/or timediversity and thus help prevent inter-cellular interference. Thus herethe eNB and the respective class of UEs may have agreed on apredetermined formula to use in determining future resource assignmentsof SIB repetitions. This formula may be based on parameters provided inthe AIB, and may be based on a chosen parameter, such as the cell-ID ofthe current cell in which the UE is operating. The redundancy versionsthemselves may also change with each version, e.g., in terms of thetype/amount of coding used/RV, and this change in redundancy versionsmay also be based on a pre-determined pattern or formula.

The cycling of RVs in SI repetitions may be pre-determined. Instead ofall SI-repetitions having the same resources-assignment, a pattern ofassigned resources variation for SI-repetitions may be determined fromthe resource-assignment for the first SI (signaled in AIB) based on someparameter (such as the cell-ID). The varying pattern may be signaled tobe “enabled” or “disabled” in the AIB.

Note that, if desired, in addition to the network transmission of AIBsdiscussed above herein, the network may continue to transmit resourceassignment information in the PDCCH for decoding by UEs per currenttelecommunications standards. Thus the manner in which “normal” (e.g.,non link budget limited) UEs decode the PDCCH to determine the locationof SI may not be affected by at least some of the embodiments describedherein. In other words, normal UEs, and possibly some link budgetlimited UEs as well, may continue to decode the PDCCH to determine thelocation of SI information in the PDSCH, per current standards.

In at least some embodiments, the AIB contains the resource assignmentinformation for SIB-1 as noted above. As described above, the AIB mayalso contain the resource assignment information for a plurality ofother SIBs as well. However, in these embodiments where the AIB containsresource assignment information for SIB-1 and a plurality of other SIBs,the AIB may become larger than desired. This may make the AIB moredifficult to decode and/or may represent an inefficient usage of networkresources.

In order to keep the size of the AIB small, and hence easier to decode,in at least some embodiments the AIB contains the resource assignmentfor SIB-1 and the resource-assignment information for only oneadditional SI (e.g., only one or a few additional SIBs). Therefore,unlike the first embodiment described above where the AIB includedresource-assignment information for a plurality or all of the systeminformation (SI), in this embodiment the AIB may only contain theresource-assignment information for the current SIB-1 and one additionalSI (e.g., the next SI).

Each set of system information (SI) may arrive in a “window”, referredto as an SI-window, composed of a number of subframes. The additionalinformation contained in the AIB may be for the SI in the nextSI-window. The information in the AIB may be changed a fixed number ofTTI's before the next SI-window to reflect the resource-assignment forthe SI in the next SI-window. For example, the AIB transmitted during anSI window may indicate the resource assignment for the SI in the nextSI-window. Thus, since the information in the AIB may change everySI-window, the UE device may thus be required to decode AIB during eachSI-window in which it intends to decode the SI in the next SI-window.

In this embodiment where the AIB is smaller, the UE may be required todecode the AIB in every SI-window. Since the AIB is smaller, a singleSI-window may contain a sufficient number of repetitions of the AIB forproper decoding by a link budget limited UE.

Since the eNB scheduler may alter the resource-assignment (and location)of SI's, the content of the AIB may change accordingly. As part of thetransmission protocol, such changes may be made at known occasions,e.g., modulo some “periodicity” and “offset” of the system-frame-number.Thus the eNB may make the SI scheduling changes at these occasions.

In 504, the base station 102 may transmit the SIBs in the downlinkshared channel (e.g., PDSCH) according to the indicated resourceassignments, e.g., including encoding the resources assigned to carrythe SI with the SI.

In 506, a UE 106 receiving the AIB may decode the AIB. Based on the AIB,the UE 106 may be able to determine the SIB resource assignment(s)included in the AIB (e.g., potentially including resource assignmentinformation for some or all of the SIBs, as discussed above, accordingto various embodiments).

In 508, the UE 106 may receive and decode SIBs transmitted by the basestation 102 based on determining the SIB resource assignment(s) from theAIB. Thus, the UE 106 may be able to determine the resources assigned tothe SI and decode those resources, and thus retrieve the SI, withoutdecoding the downlink control channel (e.g., PDCCH).

Note that in some embodiments the eNB may power-boost any or all of theSI resources (e.g., the resource elements carrying the SI) in the PDSCH.The eNB may also transmit extra repetitions in time or frequency for theSI. Parameters for such repetitions may be pre-agreed as part ofprotocol (for use of link-budget limited UE devices) and/or may besignaled in the AIB. If desired, the eNB may determine (and/or share)the pattern for scheduling SIB repetition(s) based on the firstassignment of a SIB; accordingly, in some embodiments, only thescheduling of the first transmission of such a SIB may be signaled inthe AIB.

At least some embodiments of the methods described herein do not requireany changes to the regular broadcast system information in a cell. Also,at least some embodiments described herein may eliminate the need todecode PDCCH for decoding the SI (e.g., instead the information will besignaled in the AIB for link-budget limited class of UE devices).Further, for at least some embodiments described herein, there is noimplication for normal UE devices, i.e., normal UE devices (UE devicesthat are not link budget limited) are not affected and do not requireany modifications to operate properly in a network implementing theseembodiments.

FIG. 6—SIB Resource Assignment Using Reserved Resources

While providing an AIB carried on a downlink control channel mayrepresent one possible technique for enabling a wireless device toretrieve system information without requiring the wireless device todecode a downlink control channel, FIG. 6 is a communication flowdiagram illustrating another possible technique, in which pre-determinedresource assignments are utilized for transmitting system information.Note that while elements of the method of FIG. 6 are describedsubstantially with reference to the LTE wireless communicationtechnology, part or all of the method may be used in conjunction withother wireless communication technologies (e.g., including futurerevisions to and/or successors of LTE), as desired.

The method shown in FIG. 6 may be used in conjunction with any of thecomputer systems or devices shown in the above Figures, among otherdevices. In various embodiments, some of the elements of the schemeshown may be performed concurrently, in a different order than shown,substituted for by other elements, or may be omitted. Additionalelements may also be performed as desired. As shown, the scheme mayoperate as follows.

In 602, a BS 102 may transmit SIBs in a downlink shared channelaccording to predetermined resource assignments. In at least someembodiments, a pre-agreement may be established between the eNB and linkbudget limited devices as to the location and resource-assignment ofSIB's (so that these can be decoded without decoding the correspondingPDCCH). This pre-agreement method may relate to “special” SIBs that aresent in addition to regular SIBs, or may relate to pre-agreedtransmission of regular SIBs. These “special” SIBs may be transmitted toa specific class of UEs (e.g., link budget limited UEs), and “normal”UEs may not be aware of these special SIBs. Alternatively, even normalUEs may be able to selectively utilize these special SIBs. These“special” SIBs may be transmitted at predetermined locations, e.g.,every one second. These may have enough repetitions and power boostagesuch that the special class of UEs are able to decode them. Since theseSIBs are in a fixed location in the PDSCH, this method also does notrequire decoding of the PDCCH.

The eNB may fix the resources used for the SIBs, e.g., the modulationand coding scheme (MCS) or resource blocks (RBs), for a certain numberof SFN's that will be pre-determined (or pre-agreed upon). For example,if (SFN modulo 256)=0, then the eNB will send the SIBs in the firstinstance of TTIs agreed in the respective telecommunicationspecification, but will use a predefined resource allocation and TTIlocations. Thus, a link-budget limited UE will not need to decode thePDCCH for these SIBs. Further, this method of pre-determined locationsof SIBs may not utilize the broadcast of AIBs as described above withrespect to FIG. 5. Alternatively, an information block may betransmitted to inform UE devices about support of link budget limiteddevices (e.g., in general and/or specifically with respect to provisionof system information), from which UE devices may infer thatpre-determined/pre-agreed time and frequency domain resource assignmentsare being used for the system information.

In order to create diversity against interference, the location ofresource blocks (RBs) could be a function of the physical Cell-ID orsome other parameter. Similarly, a pre-agreement on the TTIs containingthe SIBs that will be power boosted can be implemented. This may operateto avoid wasting of NW resources, and only these pre-determined SIBs maybe power boosted. The link-budget limited UEs may only decode the SIB inthese pre-agreed SFN locations. This pre-agreement method may requirethe relaxation of the acquisition time.

In 506, a UE 106 may be able to determine the SIB resource assignment(s)for the SIBs transmitted by the BS 102. For example, the UE 106 may beable to utilize a predetermined function such as any of theabove-described techniques for pre-agreeing upon resource locations ofSIBs.

In 508, the UE 106 may receive and decode SIBs transmitted by the basestation 102 based on determining the SIB resource assignment(s). Thus,the UE 106 may be able to determine the resources assigned to the SI anddecode those resources, and thus retrieve the SI, without decoding thedownlink control channel (e.g., PDCCH).

Paging Scheduling

At least some embodiments described herein may also provide for improvedpaging scheduling for link budget limited devices. For paging in RRCIDLE mode, the eNBs in the tracking area of a UE device may not havereceived measurement reports from the UE device (e.g., at leastrecently). Hence the eNB may not know if the UE device is in a coveragelimited scenario, or even if the UE device remains in the eNB's cell atall. Thus the eNB may not be able to determine if power-boosting orincreased resources/repetitions are desired for the link-budget limitedUE device. If the UE device is in fact no longer located in the cell ofthe eNB, then the eNB may undesirably waste valuable transmissionresources attempting to communicate with the UE device. For example, atleast in some instances, when the eNB chooses to “power boost” PDCCHresource elements (REs) containing a P-RNTI, the eNB is necessarilystealing power from other PDCCH REs (e.g., if the total transmit powerover all REs is subject to a maximum due to regulations and/or for otherreasons).

One current solution to this problem is for the MME to instruct an eNBof the last known cell where the UE device was present, to send pagingmessage for the UE device. If the UE device does not respond, then theMME will instruct one or more other eNBs in the tracking area to attemptto page the UE device.

In some embodiments, the MME may inform the eNB when sending a page thatthe paging message is intended for the class of link-budget limited UEs.For example, the MME may inform the eNB when sending a page (which isbroadcast to a plurality of UEs) that at least one of the target UE's isof a special class, e.g., is LBL. In order to limit the impact on NWresources, in some embodiments the eNB may power-boost and/or increaseassigned resources (on PDCCH and PDSCH) for transmission of the page insteps (e.g., starting with normal power and resources and progressivelyincreasing on subsequent paging attempts) and/or for up to afixed/limited number of paging attempts.

A link-budget limited UE device may typically have smaller effectivecell due to its reduced power/transmission capabilities. The UE devicein many cases will undergo radio link failure (RLF) when moving from onecell to another cell. In this case, the UE device may establish a newRRC connection in the new cell, and thus the MME will get an update onthe last cell in which the UE device was located. The MME while pagingmay first try only on the last known cell in which the UE device waslocated.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart diagram illustrating a possible technique forreducing ambiguity with respect to which cell a link-budget limited UEdevice is located in, according to some embodiments. Note that whileelements of the method of FIG. 7 are described substantially withreference to the LTE wireless communication technology, part or all ofthe method may be used in conjunction with other wireless communicationtechnologies (e.g., including future revisions to and/or successors ofLTE), as desired.

The method shown in FIG. 7 may be used in conjunction with any of thecomputer systems or devices shown in the above Figures, among otherdevices. In various embodiments, some of the elements of the methodshown may be performed concurrently, in a different order than shown,substituted for by other elements, or may be omitted. Additionalelements may also be performed as desired. As shown, the method mayoperate as follows.

In 702, a link-budget limited UE device may perform cell re-selection.For example, the UE device may be transported from the service area ofone base station to the service are of another base station, determineto re-select to a cell provided by the new base station based on one ormore cell signal strength metrics, cell signal quality metrics, and/orother cell re-selection triggers.

In 704, upon re-selecting to the new cell, the UE device may establishan RRC connection with the new cell to inform the cellular network ofthe current cell location of the UE device. This may allow the cellularnetwork to use the cell location of the UE device to more efficientlyuse network resources in paging the UE device.

Thus, according to some embodiments, a UE device may operate togenerally always establish an RRC connection when arriving within a newcell when performing cell-re-selection, thereby informing the MME of theUE device's location. In this way, the MME may always be knowledgeableabout the cell-location of the UE device and thus the enhanced NWresources on paging may be used (if desired) for only one eNB in thetracking area. In other words, the MME may be able to instruct just theeNB providing the cell in which the UE is currently located to send apaging message, and the MME may not be required to instruct all of theeNBs in the tracking area to send these paging messages.

In the following further exemplary embodiments are provided.

One set of embodiments may include a method performed by a base stationconfigured to serve a cell in a cellular network, comprising: by thebase station: transmitting an information block (IB) comprising firstinformation for accessing the cell, wherein the first informationcomprises a resource assignment for system information block 1 (SIB-1),wherein the information block is transmitted in a downlink shared datachannel; and transmitting the SIB-1 in the downlink shared data channel.

According to some embodiments, the information block is useable by auser equipment (UE) to determine the resource assignment of the SIB-1,and hence a location of the SIB-1 in the downlink shared data channel,without requiring the UE to decode a downlink control channel.

According to some embodiments, transmitting the IB in the shared datachannel is performed for a specific class of link budget limited UEs.

According to some embodiments, the first information comprises one ormore resource assignments for one or more other system informationblocks in addition to SIB-1.

According to some embodiments, the first information comprises aplurality of resource assignments for all system information blocks inaddition to SIB-1.

According to some embodiments, the first information comprises only: 1)a first resource assignment for SIB-1; and 2) a second resourceassignment for a second system information.

According to some embodiments, the method further comprises: by the basestation: transmitting the resource assignment for the system informationblock 1 (SIB-)1 in a downlink control channel; wherein the resourceassignment for the SIB-1 transmitted in the downlink control channel isuseable by a user equipment (UE) to determine the resource assignment ofthe SIB-1, and hence a location of the SIB-1 in the downlink shared datachannel; wherein the resource assignment for the SIB-1 transmitted inthe downlink control channel is useable by UEs that are not link budgetlimited.

According to some embodiments, transmitting the information block (IB)comprising the first information comprises performing one or more of: 1)power boosting transmission of the IB in the downlink shared datachannel; 2) transmitting one or more repetitions of the IB.

According to some embodiments, the downlink shared data channel is aphysical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) of a telecommunicationsnetwork; wherein the IB is an announcement information block (AIB).

Another set of embodiments may include a method performed by a basestation configured to serve a cell in a cellular network, comprising: bythe base station: transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), one or moresystem information blocks (SIBS) comprising first information foraccessing the cell, wherein said transmitting the one or more SIBs isperformed at predetermined times known by the base station and the UE,wherein said transmitting is performed on a downlink shared datachannel; and wherein the one or more SIBs are decodable by the UEwithout requiring the UE to decode a downlink control channel.

According to some embodiments, said transmitting is performed atresource blocks determined as a function of a predetermined parameter.

According to some embodiments, the predetermined parameter is a cell IDof the cell in which the UE is currently operating.

A further set of embodiments may include a base station configured toserve a cell in a cellular network, comprising: an antenna; a radiocoupled to the antenna; and a processing element operably coupled to theradio; wherein the base station is configured to perform cellularcommunications to user equipment (UEs) in the cellular network; whereinthe base station is configured to implement any of the methods of thepreceding examples.

Another set of embodiments may include an integrated circuit for use ina base station, wherein the integrated circuit is configured toimplement any of the methods of the preceding examples.

A still further set of embodiments may include a method performed by auser equipment operating in a cellular network, the method comprising:by the user equipment: performing a cell search; acquiring a cellassociated with a base station based on the cell search; receiving, fromthe base station, an information block (IB) comprising first informationfor accessing the cell, wherein the first information comprises aresource assignment for system information block 1 (SIB-1), wherein theinformation block is received in a downlink shared data channel;receiving, from the base station, the SIB-1 in the downlink shared datachannel; determining the resource assignment of the SIB-1, and hence alocation of the SIB-1 in the downlink shared data channel, withoutrequiring decoding by the UE of a downlink control channel.

According to some embodiments, the first information comprises one ormore resource assignments for one or more other system informationblocks in addition to SIB-1.

According to some embodiments, the first information comprises aplurality of resource assignments for all system information blocks inaddition to SIB-1.

According to some embodiments, the first information comprises only: 1)a first resource assignment for SIB-1; and 2) a second resourceassignment for a second system information.

A yet further set of embodiments may include a method performed by auser equipment operating in a cellular network, the method comprising:by the user equipment: performing a cell search; acquiring a cellassociated with a base station based on the cell search; receiving, froma base station, one or more system information blocks (SIBs) comprisingfirst information for accessing the cell, wherein said receiving the oneor more SIBs is performed at predetermined times known by the basestation and the UE, wherein the one or more SIBs are received on adownlink shared data channel; and wherein the one or more SIBs aredecoded by the UE without the UE decoding a downlink control channel.

According to some embodiments, the one or more SIBs are located atresource blocks determined as a function of a predetermined parameter.

According to some embodiments, the predetermined parameter is a cell IDof the cell in which the UE is currently operating.

Yet another set of embodiments may include a user equipment, comprising:an antenna; a radio coupled to the antenna; and a processing elementoperably coupled to the radio, wherein the user equipment is configuredto implement any of the methods of the preceding examples.

A further set of embodiments may include an integrated circuit for usein a user equipment, wherein the integrated circuit is configured toimplement any of the methods of the preceding examples.

A still further set of embodiments may include a user equipment,comprising: an antenna; a radio coupled to the antenna; and a processingelement operably coupled to the radio, wherein the user equipment isconfigured to: perform a cell re-selection to acquire a new cell in thecellular network; in response to performing the cell re-selection,establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection with the new cell,thereby informing the cellular network about a cell location of the UE;wherein the cellular network is operable to use the cell location tomore efficiently use network resources in paging the UE.

According to some embodiments, the UE is link budget limited.

A further exemplary set of embodiments may include a non-transitorycomputer accessible memory medium comprising program instructions which,when executed at a device, cause the device to implement any or allparts of any of the preceding examples.

A still further exemplary set of embodiments may include a computerprogram comprising instructions for performing any or all parts of anyof the preceding examples.

Yet another exemplary set of embodiments may include an apparatuscomprising means for performing any or all of the elements of any of thepreceding examples.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be realized in any of variousforms. For example some embodiments may be realized as acomputer-implemented method, a computer-readable memory medium, or acomputer system. Other embodiments may be realized using one or morecustom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. Still other embodimentsmay be realized using one or more programmable hardware elements such asFPGAs.

In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable memory mediummay be configured so that it stores program instructions and/or data,where the program instructions, if executed by a computer system, causethe computer system to perform a method, e.g., any of a methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of such subsets.

In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE 106) may be configured toinclude a processor (or a set of processors) and a memory medium, wherethe memory medium stores program instructions, where the processor isconfigured to read and execute the program instructions from the memorymedium, where the program instructions are executable to implement anyof the various method embodiments described herein (or, any combinationof the method embodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of themethod embodiments described herein, or, any combination of suchsubsets). The device may be realized in any of various forms.

Although the embodiments above have been described in considerabledetail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent tothose skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated.It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace allsuch variations and modifications.

What is claimed is:
 1. A user equipment (UE) device, comprising: anantenna; a radio coupled to the antenna; and a processing elementoperably coupled to the radio, wherein the UE device is configured to:perform a cell search; acquire a cell associated with a base stationbased on the cell search; receive, from the base station, an informationblock (IB) comprising first information for accessing the cell, whereinthe first information comprises a resource assignment for systeminformation block 1 (SIB-1); determine the resource assignment of theSIB-1 in a downlink shared data channel based on the IB and withoutdecoding an associated downlink control channel; and receive, from thebase station, the SIB-1 in the downlink shared data channel inaccordance with the determined resource assignment of the SIB-1.
 2. TheUE device of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises one ormore resource assignments for one or more other system informationblocks in addition to SIB-1, wherein the UE device is further configuredto: determine the one or more resource assignments of the one or moreother system information blocks in the downlink shared data channelbased on the IB; and receive, from the base station, the one or moreother system information blocks in the downlink shared data channel inaccordance with the determined one or more resource assignments of theone or more other system information blocks.
 3. The UE device of claim1, wherein the IB further comprises information indicating a pattern ofassigned resources for one or more system information block repetitions.4. The UE device of claim 1, wherein the UE device is of a class of linkbudget limited UE devices, and the IB is an enhancement feature for theclass of link budget limited UE devices.
 5. The UE device of claim 1,wherein the downlink control channel is a physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH), and no PDCCH is associated with the IB.
 6. The UEdevice of claim 1, wherein the UE device is further configured to:receive one or more repetitions of the IB.
 7. The UE device of claim 1,wherein the downlink shared data channel is a physical downlink sharedchannel (PDSCH) of a telecommunications network.
 8. A user equipment(UE) device, comprising: an antenna; a radio coupled to the antenna; anda processing element operably coupled to the radio, wherein the UEdevice is configured to: receive an information block (TB) comprisingfirst information for accessing the cell, wherein the first informationcomprises resource assignments for at least two system informationblocks (SIBs), wherein the IB is transmitted in a downlink shared datachannel; and receive the at least two SIBs in the downlink shared datachannel, wherein the information block is useable to determine theresource assignments of the at least two SIBs, and hence locations ofthe at least two SIBs in the downlink shared data channel, withoutdecoding an associated downlink control channel.
 9. The UE device ofclaim 8, wherein the UE device is of a class of link budget limited UEdevices, and the IB is an enhancement feature for the class of linkbudget limited UE devices.
 10. The UE device of claim 8, wherein thefirst information comprises resource assignments for all other SIBs forthe cell for a class of link budget limited UE devices.
 11. The UEdevice of claim 8, wherein the downlink control channel is a physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH), and no PDCCH is associated with theIB.
 12. The UE device of claim 10, wherein the IB further comprisesinformation indicating a redundancy version (RV) pattern for one or moresystem information block repetitions.
 13. The UE device of claim 8,wherein UE device is further configured to: receive an updated IBcomprising modified resource assignments for the at least two SIBS; andreceive the one or more SIBs having modified resource assignments. 14.The UE device of claim 8, wherein the UE device is further configuredto: receive one or more repetitions of the IB.
 15. The UE device ofclaim 8, wherein the downlink shared data channel is a physical downlinkshared channel (PDSCH) of a telecommunications network.
 16. The UEdevice of claim 8, wherein the IB further comprises informationindicating a pattern of assigned resources variation for one or moresystem information block repetitions.
 17. An integrated circuit for usein a base station configured to serve a cell in a cellular network,wherein the integrated circuit comprises: one or more processingelements, wherein the one or more processing elements are configured to:receive information from the mobility management entity (MME) that apaging message is intended for at least one user equipment (UE) deviceof a class of link-budget limited UE devices; in response to receivingthe information from the MME, transmit the paging message to the atleast one UE device of the class of link-budget limited UE devices usingimproved paging scheduling for link budget limited devices, wherein theimproved paging scheduling comprises increased resources in comparisonto those used for non-link-budget limited UE devices.
 18. The integratedcircuit of claim 17, wherein the increased resources of the improvedpaging schedule comprise repetitions of transmission of the pagingmessage to the at least one UE device of the class of link-budgetlimited UE devices.
 19. The integrated circuit of claim 18, wherein touse improved paging scheduling, the one or more processing elements arefurther configured to: for a sequence of paging attempts, transmit thepaging message with sequentially larger transmission power boosts for upto a limited number of paging attempts.
 20. The integrated circuit ofclaim 18, wherein to use improved paging scheduling, the one or moreprocessing elements are further configured to: for a sequence of pagingattempts, transmit the paging message with sequentially increasedassigned resources for up to a limited number of paging attempts.